Still All In After All These Years - An Anniversary Celebration
by Attracted2Pie
Summary: Luke and Lorelai are celebrating their first wedding anniversary! Luke has a special evening planned, but the biggest surprise comes after the date! *I'm marking this as "In-progress" in case I get the urge to continue.*


Luke and Lorelai looked at each other across the table at Sniffy's.

"This thing we're doing here...me...you...I just want you to know I'm in. I am all in. Does that…? Are you...scared..? Lorelai? Lorelai?"

Lorelai's eyes opened to the same hopeful look on a slightly older Luke face and she smiled.

"Hey you. I was just dreaming about you!"

Luke's eyes darkened a bit and he cleared his throat. "Oh?" he said. "...dirty?"

Lorelai laughed. "Well it would have gotten there, but you woke me up. I was dreaming about our first date..." she said, a bit of nostalgia in her voice.

Luke sat on the edge of the bed and leaned over to kiss his wife. "That *was* a really great first date" he said.

Lorelai grinned. "If I'm not mistaken, that's what I said right after we..."

"Yeah. Yeah. I know." Luke said laughing. "And you were right."

Lorelai sat up and kissed Luke softly.

"Can you believe that was 13 years ago?" Luke asked.

"What?! No! I'm only 25, it couldn't have been that long ago!" Lorelai said sarcastically, but then she softened. "It seems like forever ago and just yesterday, all at the same time"

Luke nodded. "I know what you mean. We've been on this crazy, mostly amazing ride for so long, and it's still just the beginning".

"Wow I've really turned you into a complete softie, haven't I?" Lorelai teased. But she loved this sweet, romantic, nostalgic side of her husband. All the gruffness was still there, but every now and then he switched gears. Moreso in the last few months since Rory's daughter had been born. Watching Luke with Emma - short for Emily - was one of the most beautiful things she'd ever seen and she had somehow managed to fall even more in love with him since that baby made her appearance in late June. But if she was being honest, it made her a little sad, too. She still ached a bit for the fresh kid they never got to have. Though they had looked into surrogacy the previous year, it didn't feel right and they both decided to close that door. But every now and then she wondered...

Luke eyed Lorelai curiously. "You've got your thinking face on" he said to her.

Lorelai grinned. "Yeah. I was just thinking about how fun it is to watch you with Emma. You're a really great Poppa."

Luke blushed a little. "She makes it easy. I didn't think babies were supposed to be that calm and...sleepy."

Lorelai laughed "they're not! God, Rory kept me up all night every night for almost 2yrs. Not the kind of all-nighters most teenagers think about."

"She's a really great mom, though" Luke said "I never doubted she would be, but she still amazes me. I still don't know how she managed to get that book finished before Emma was born"

"Well you know Rory...once she gets an idea in her head, she doesn't stop until she's accomplished whatever it is she set out to do. And I really need to hand it to Jess, too." Lorelai admitted. "For using his publishing connections to get her an editor and a publisher that could really sell the book to the right market! Can you believe it debuted on the New York Times Bestseller list and is still there three weeks later?"

Lorelai never missed an opportunity to gush about her daughter, but the last year had really allowed Rory to show what she was made of. She moved to Queens, wrote her entire book, got it published, gave birth, did some press with her journalism contacts, got the book on bestseller lists across the country, and was halfway done with a new book...a novel this time, inspired by and in memory of Richard. She had never been more proud of her daughter. She just wished that she and her granddaughter didn't live so far.

Rory had sublet her apartment for about 4 months and lived at home with Luke and Lorelai while she had Emma so she would have a little bit of help those first couple of months. But she was back at her apartment in Queens now and Lorelai missed them a lot. She was glad they were all getting together in a couple weeks in Nantucket to celebrate the success of the book with Emily.

"It's been a whirlwind year for all of us I think" Luke said, shaking Lorelai from her thoughts.

Lorelai nodded, still a bit lost in her own little world.

"Hey, you okay?" Luke asked her.

Lorelai smiled at him. "Totally." She said. "Just missing Rory and Emma. I was just thinking that I'm glad we'll all be together in a couple weeks."

"Me too"' Luke told her. "But we have our own celebrating to do first!"

"We do?" Lorelai joked.

"Ha ha. Very funny." He told her.

"One year married already" Lorelai said

"Almost one year" Luke corrected her. "Not until tomorrow".

"So what should we do to celebrate?" Lorelai asked him.

"I have some thoughts" Luke said, a little flirtatiously.

Lorelai raised her eyebrows. "Alright, but no taking me to an art museum after hours and th..."

"Oh god. Thirteen years and you're still doing that bit?" Luke interrupted playfully.

"It's my biggest crowd pleaser!" She responded, as she finally climbed out of bed. "So do I get to know where we're going, or is it all a surprise?"

"What do you think?" He said.

"Oh fine. I'll be patient." She said as she patted his shoulder, then headed into the bathroom. "I need to get to the annex this morning. Make sure Michel's not stressing out the nice people paying lots of money to de-stress" she called to him.

Luke had wandered into the bathroom behind her to brush his teeth. "Sounds good. You'll come by the diner when you get hungry?"

"Hello? Don't I always? Then I'll help you close up while pestering you about what you have planned for tomorrow" she said, grinning.

"You're shameless" Luke told her as he kissed her goodbye and headed out of the room.  
_

The whole way to the diner, Luke couldn't stop thinking about Rory and Emma. He thought it was really sweet how Rory had named her daughter after her grandmother, while still giving her her own identity. Just as Lorelai had done for her. Chip off the old amazing mother block.

He found himself thinking back to last year when they had broached the idea of surrogacy. Now that he understood how it all worked, he felt pretty silly for being so confused about why everyone wanted him to have sex with all of those women. He wondered if Lorelai had dropped the idea because he seemed so against it or if she really decided she didn't want a 'fresh kid' as she called it. In the two decades that she had been in his life, he did what made her happy...because that's what made *him* happy. He hated to think that he had failed at the only real task he'd ever given himself when it came to the woman who was now his wife. His brain was racing when he finally made it into the diner. He called to Ceasar that he was headed upstairs and to holler if he needed anything.

Luke walked into his old apartment. Not much had changed. Obviously, he hadn't been living there in quite some time, but he still used it as his office, and April stayed there when she came to town. He pulled out his laptop that he kept all the business stuff on and opened his internet browser. He was glad that April and Rory had helped him learn to use Google. He had a lot of research to do!

The next night, Luke pulled up to the house just as Lorelai was coming out and he couldn't help but laugh. Considering his plans for the evening, this couldn't have worked out more perfectly.

Luke was smiling when he climbed out of the truck and Lorelai tilted her head at him.

"I thought I was coming to the diner before we left?" She asked him.

"I know. But I decided to leave early and figured I could catch you before you left. Guess I've got good timing." Luke told her, and leaned in to kiss her. "Happy Anniversary" he said.

"Happy Anniversary to you too, handsome. Looks like we made it, huh?" she responded.

"You bet we did." he told her, winking.

Luke opened the door of the truck for Lorelai and she giggled.

"All these years later and you're still opening doors for me? What did I ever do to deserve you?" she asked him.

"Well you've put up with me this long, I figured I might be doing a couple things right." Luke said, grinning.

They drove for a few minutes while Lorelai fiddled with the radio. Luke learned after his Reggae Fever experience to just let Lorelai handle the music when they were in the car together. Plus, in this particular instance, since she was focused on getting the right music for their evening, she wasn't paying attention to the familiar drive.

When Luke pulled up to Sniffy's Tavern, Lorelai gasped.

"Luke! Am I dreaming again?" Lorelai said excitedly.

Luke grinned. "I'd hoped you'd be happy about this choice." he told her as he opened his door.

Luke escorted Lorelai into Sniffy's and led her right to their reserved table. The very same table they'd had reserved for their first date. Lorelai shook her head in amusement and disbelief as she slid into the booth and a waitress appeared with their menus.

"You couldn't get the same waitress back, huh? Man...I don't know about this, Luke" Lorelai chastised.

Luke just rolled his eyes, but he was grinning at the same time.

Just as the waitress walked away, Maisy and Buddy came around the corner and Lorelai jumped out of her seat to hug them.

"Maisy! Buddy! What are you doing here?" Lorelai asked them.

"We own the place, Lorelai" Maisy said, her dry humor showing through.

"I know. But you're supposed to be retired."

"We are, dear" Buddy said, "but we had to be here to celebrate with you!"

Maisy concurred. "We were so sorry to be out of town for the wedding, but when Lucas called us to say he had plans for your anniversary and wanted to re-create your first date, we had to come in!"

Lorelai snickered when Maisy called Luke "Lucas". But she was starting to get a bit misty-eyed. She couldn't believe that this was where their story officially started all those years ago. She remembered something she'd said to Rory the year before as they sat on the steps of the gazebo after wedding number one.

"Sometimes it's just a journey, you know?"

A journey indeed. The last year, hell, the last two years had been such a journey for all of them. Losing Dad. Mom's grieving. Her own grief. Rory's personal and professional challenges and successes. And of course finally...FINALLY realizing that she and Luke had waited way too long to get married, and their wedding(s). What a wild ride.

Maisy set down the bottle of champagne she'd carried out and took their menus before Lorelai could start reading the Sniffy story again. The sound of the bottle hitting the table brought Lorelai back to the present and she sat back down. Luke eyed her curiously, but didn't say anything. He knew her well enough to know she'd be reminiscing a bit today. And he figured he probably had a hand in that considering the evening he'd planned.

When Maisy and Buddy left their table, Luke scooched closer to Lorelai and took her hand. She leaned forward and kissed him softly.

"Thank you for tonight" she told him. "This is pretty spectacular. It's amazing to think of all the things that we've been through together since the first time we sat here in this booth."

Luke smiled. "It's no big deal."

"You know. You always say that, but it's always a big deal." Lorelai told him.

Luke just shrugged, which made Lorelai chuckle to herself. This man had no idea how wonderful he was.

Luke and Lorelai enjoyed their meal. The same one they'd had on their first date, this time with the garlic because they were going home together no matter what.

As they started the drive back home, Lorelai slid over on the bench seat in the old truck so she could sit closer to Luke. She was still shaking her head over the fact that he'd re-planned the entire evening. They had even had the "how did we meet" conversation and Lorelai was absolutely floored to find out that Luke still carried the horoscope in his wallet. It had faded so much it was difficult to read, but there it was. Luke had mentioned how glad he was that she didn't actually go away when he gave her the coffee. Lorelai echoed the same sentiments.

When they got back to the center of town, Lorelai turned to Luke.

"It feels like we should go back up to your old apartment to finish off the night." she said, wagging her eyebrows at him.

Luke laughed. "That's the part of the evening I think I'll change. Our bed is much more comfortable than the one up there." he said.

Lorelai turned seductive. "It's cute how you think we're going to make it to the bed."

Luke's eyes widened. It's true they were still more or less newlyweds, but after so many years together, they didn't always get suggestive and dirty anymore.

Lorelai giggled at Luke's non-verbal reaction. She always enjoyed making him blush. But she knew he loved it.

Luke pulled into the driveway and they held hands on their way to the door like two teenagers who had to say goodnight before curfew. Luke let go and reached out his key to unlock the door when Lorelai caught his hand and stopped him. She pulled him close to her and tilted her face up toward his. Luke caught her mouth with his and their kiss was deep and full of promise. Lorelai's hands were on the back of his neck, their tongues dancing together when they heard a noise from next door. They pulled back and looked at each other, confused.

"Geeez, dolls!" Babette said in her characteristically loud and gravelly voice. "You're not teenaga's anymore! Can't ya go do that inside before ya scare the neighbors?"

Luke and Lorelai both laughed as they held each other.

"Goodnight, Babette!" they called as they finally made their way in the house.

Lorelai wasn't kidding. They didn't make it to the bedroom right away. The couch was closer. Their clothes ended up strewn about the foyer as they made their way into the living room, barely breaking full body contact. Luke couldn't remember the last time she'd been so forceful and he was loving it! Apparently he'd have to plan more re-created dates. That seemed to excite her. He did his best to focus on the absolutely gorgeous naked woman in front of him and not the last bit of surprise he had planned for the night. She made it pretty easy when she nudged him down onto the couch and climbed on top of him….

Luke and Lorelai had finally made it upstairs and were snuggled together under the covers - Lorelai resting her head on Luke's chest while he played with her hair.

"So…" Luke began, as he leaned across Lorelai and opened the top drawer of the nightstand. "I have one more surprise…"

Luke took a large manilla envelope out of the drawer and shut it, then snuggled back in with Lorelai, who was looking curious and confused.

"We agreed no gifts! What did you do, mister?" she asked him.

"Well it's not exactly a gift. It's more of...an idea" he told her.

Now Lorelai was even more curious and sat up a little as he started to open the envelope. She noticed his hands were shaking a bit. Now she was curious AND a little nervous.

"So I've been thinking." Luke said, looking at his wife. "This big house is awfully quiet. The girls are grown and doing their own things, brilliantly, I might add. Rory has started a family of her own. Paul Anka has never been much for making noise…"

"Luuuuke. Where are you going with this?" Lorelai asked, tentatively.

"Well, I know we nixed the surrogacy idea. And I know I said before that I didn't think adoption was the right thing because I thought we'd have to go to some strange country and none of that felt right. But I've been doing a lot of research…"

"I...you've what?" Lorelai's head was spinning. Was Luke really telling her what she thought he was? She could feel tears welling up in her eyes.

"Research." Luke told her. "On the internet. And I found this adoption agency in Hartford and I called them yesterday. They said they deal in foreign *and* domestic adoptions and I kind of jumped and filled out the initial application that they emailed to me and….." Luke trailed off.

Lorelai was fighting to keep the tears from falling. She reached out and took the envelope from Luke and pulled out the papers inside. Basic information about the agency. A copy of the application he'd filled out. A business card with the name of a social worker. She couldn't hold back any more and she felt the tears roll down her cheeks.

Luke was nervous.

"Lorelai? Are you? ...happy tears or sad tears?" he asked her.

Lorelai did her best to find her voice. "Happy." she said. "A little shocked...and nervous. But happy."

Luke breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"I was nervous too. Still am, a little. But the way you were talking about watching me with Emma and I've seen the look on your face when you play with her or even just hold her. You're an amazing Mom, Lorelai. And I think there's another kid in this world who should get the opportunity to call you Mom. I think we both deserve our fresh kid."

Lorelai couldn't speak. She just kissed him hard and hugged him. How he had known this was what she was thinking about, she'll never know. But she was so grateful for this amazing man.

"I don't even know what to say, Luke. This is without a doubt the most amazing thing you've ever done. And you once wrote me a check for $30,000, no questions asked, so that's really saying something."

Luke smiled. "If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times Lorelai. I just like to see you happy. I want this. And I want you to have this."

"We said no gifts..." Lorelai began, looking at the papers in her hands "and here you go giving me the most incredible gift anyone could ever give another person. I don't think I'll ever be able to thank you."

"The look on your face is the best thanks I could ever get. I was a little afraid you'd shoot the idea down." Luke confessed.

"Please. When the love of your life says he wants a kid, there's no turning that down" Lorelai said.

"We're not...too old...right?" Luke asked.

Lorelai scoffed. "Please! Billy Joel just became a father again and he's almost 70. I think we're good!"

Luke laughed. "Okay. Good. Though maybe we should try to adopt an older kid? So our kid isn't younger than our granddaughter?"

Now it was Lorelai's turn to laugh. "Now there's an idea." she said. "So...you're 100% sure about this?"

Luke took the papers from Lorelai and moved so that he could look straight into the amazing blue eyes of the woman he'd fallen in love with so many years before. And when he finally spoke, he said the very thing he'd told her on their first date. He meant it then and he meant it now….

"Lorelai, this thing we're doing here -me, you- I just want you to know I'm in. I am all in."

_ **  
** _ **Author's note:**_

 _ **Thanks for reading, everyone! It's still November 5th in some places, so I managed to get this in before their anniversary completely passed. I wanted a little fluff, a little catch up, and a little "what happens next". Hope you enjoyed! 3**_


End file.
